This Omelet Tastes Just Like Cacio e Pepe—Minus the Pasta

Laurent Tourondel, executive chef of L'Amico, pays homage to his early years spent in the European countryside with his Italian grandmother by redefining what constitutes as an American breakfast. His cacio e pepe omelet is basically a peppered egg soufflé stuffed with copious amounts of gooey Parmesan and gorgonzola. In Italian, cacio e pepe literally means cheese and pepper—and that’s exactly what you get: a cheese and pepper omelet. The secret to this fluffy omelet? You have to separate the eggs. Tourondel builds the base of the omelet with egg yolks and whips the whites in another bowl. “You want soft peaks—not over whipped,” he says. Then he gently folds the fluffy white peaks into the yolk mixture.

Although the Omelet Soufflé Cacio e Pepe is baked in L’Amico’s rustic wood-burning oven, it can be recreated at home using a standard oven. Fill a warm, buttered pan with the egg mixture and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until it rises. Stick a knife in the middle of the soufflé to test doneness. If clean, remove the omelet from the oven. Flip it onto a piece of parchment paper, crumble gorgonzola, and grate some parmesan cheese over top (pecorino will work too). Fold the omelet and pinch the edges shut, so the cheese can easily melt inside. And grate some more Parmesan cheese over top, because why the heck not?